Imran steps down as party chairman, appoints ‘outsider’ in his place

Gohar’s election in the PTI, without contest, is widely seen as a stop-gap arrangement and he is expected to hand over the chairmanship to Imran, once the latter is out of jail.

Gohar is also expected to run the party by consulting Imran.

Imran has been the most popular leader in Pakistan until his arrest in August this year for encouraging his supporters to stage a countrywide protest and indulge in violence and vandalism against the army.

His party will face a huge challenge in the forthcoming elections as the PTI’s popularity without Imran’s physical presence will be put to severe test by the army and his political opponents.

Imran’s decision to step down as head of the party after 27 years and hand over the reins to Gohar Ali Khan, who in the past contested the election on a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) ticket and lost, has brought resentment among sections in the party.

His decision to bring a new chairman was forced by circumstances.
The Election Commission had given a very tight deadline to hold internal elections in the party if he was interested in retaining the PTI’s electoral symbol-- a cricket bat.

With pending charges that barred him from contesting elections or holding any position in his party, Imran had to look for a new chairman.

However, the decision also showed that he was not confident about many of his senior party colleagues’ loyalty and competence.

Gohar Ali Khan, a seasoned lawyer

The ostensible reason for choosing Gohar Ali Khan was that, as a seasoned lawyer, he will be able to handle any future legal hurdle that may be thrown before the PTI by its detractors.

Imran has an extremely competent legal team and he could have chosen one of the other lawyers who had been with the PTI for a longer period than Gohar Ali Khan.

However, observers point out that others were overlooked because Imran found them to be “too ambitious.”

He feared that if one of them was made chairman, his position could be challenged once the new leader settled down in his position and took control of the party affairs.

Gohar is an ethnic Pashtun, like him, and hails from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, a PTI stronghold.

He graduated as a law student from the United Kingdom’s Wolverhampton University and got a higher degree from the Washington School of Law.

Currently, he is an advocate of the Pakistan Supreme Court and has appeared in all the high courts of the country.

He is well-regarded among fellow lawyers for his competence and mild-manners.

Speaking in Peshawar after his appointment as PTI chairman, Gohar confirmed that view as he said he would carry out his duties as Imran’s representative.

Imran and Nawaz Sharif

Imran, a former protégé of the army, was brought to political limelight and propped up as prime minister in the 2018 parliamentary elections to replace Pakistan Muslim League leader, Nawaz Sharif.

Nawaz was charged with corruption, barred from contesting elections and jailed. Finally, he was released from jail for treatment and left the country for London.

Until recently, he was in self-exile in London. There has been a role-reversal now.

In the past months, Nawaz has been brought back and the generals expect him to override the popularity of Imran.

Imran’s fall-out with the army

Imran fell out with the army over his failure to rejuvenate the country’s economy and improve ties with the US.

But once he started challenging the army’s premier position in the country by interfering in key postings and transfers in the military establishment, the generals decided to dismiss his government in April 2022.

Imran did not take kindly to his ouster and had been relentless in his attack against the army, questioning its competence and the corruption within the military establishment.

The fight between the two sides took a turn for the worse after the May 9 violent protest launched by Imran’s supporters, who attacked residences and army installations in the country.

The generals responded by coming down heavily on Imran and his PTI, forcing key leaders to publicly criticise and condemn the party chairman for the violence.

Many of Imran’s former party leaders decided to leave politics.

However, to put a semblance of a fair contest in the coming parliamentary elections, the army has now encouraged those in the PTI who did not take part in the protests, to contest in the polls but without Imran.

It now remains to be seen how successful Imran will be in transferring his popular support to his party under his appointed chairman, Gohar Ali Khan, in the February parliamentary elections.